The worst was yet to come. The Great Recession saw poverty soar, home values plummet and retirement savings sharply decline. It's little wonder that the Pew Research Center labeled the 2000s the worst decade for the American middle class in modern history.

It is within that unsettling reality that we confront the fiscal problems before us and debate the merits of extending tax cuts for middle- and lower-income Americans while ending them for the very wealthy.

The question we face is not whether the highest earners should bear the entire burden of deficit reduction, but rather whether they should play an important contributing role. The answer, overwhelmingly, is yes.

The Bush tax cuts only worsened the divide, helping to reduce overall taxes paid by the wealthiest 1% by 7 percentage points between 1980 and 2010. The Congressional Research Service, in a recent report, concluded: "As the top tax rates are reduced, the share of income accruing to the top of the income distribution increases."

Middle- and lower-income Americans have been bearing the brunt of our nation's economic malaise, and fiscal condition, for years. No one is suggesting that dealing with the deficit won't require contributions from all Americans. But it is essential that in grappling with the "fiscal cliff," and beyond, we keep in mind the challenges confronted by the American middle class in recent decades and the unprecedented prosperity enjoyed by a very small minority at the top.

We must end the tax cuts for those at the very top and extend them for everyone else.

Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Mich., is the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.